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Agiliz discovers the possibilities of Usher security

What is Usher?

It was a couple of months ago when I first started hearing about Usher. Hearing about Usher immediately made me think of a problem that I’ve faced quite often. I happen to share the exact same name with someone who lives within the same city as me. It has given me communication problems in the past, which could have been prevented by Usher.

Usher is a new form of identity, called Mobile Identity. Usher dematerializes traditional forms of identity storing them on a smartphone that is biometrically linked to its owner. It replaces outdated methods of identity verification with a mobile application that stores identity badges. It is a platform designed for every business process and application across an enterprise. Overall, Usher is a security platform which prevents cybercrime & identity fraud.

There are 2 main things that you can do with Usher:

Unlock logical systems such as desktops, applications, websites, …

Unlock physical systems such as doors, gates, …

This means that you don’t need to remember your passwords, bring your physical keys or ID’s and so on. Usher simply dematerializes them and makes them more secure.

In addition to this Usher is able to monitor activity backed by the MicroStrategy Analytics Platform. It gives you a global view of all Usher’s activity within your enterprise. You can locate every individual and drilldown to see that individual’s activities. You don’t only monitor individuals, you can monitor facilities and resources as well to manage low-bouncing and optimize usage.

Usher / Usher Pro

2 mobile applications

Usher by MicroStrategy

This application is used by the end-users. It contains all your identity badges and keys. In addition to this there is an Usher inbox in which you receive messages from others within the same network.

Usher Professional (IOS only)

This application will mostly be used by the managers within the enterprise. It is used to monitor all Usher’s activities within the network. In addition to this you can send messages to everyone within the network.

What did we do?

Combining its possibilities and technology slowly ignited my interests. I don’t just want to know what it’s capable of, I want to be able to configure and manage it myself. So about a good month ago I started to immerse myself in Usher. I’ve mostly done a lot of self-studying. In the beginning I’ve watched video’s, read articles but most importantly I’ve been playing with it and tested it out.

With all of this in mind I started working on 3 projects. The first project is configuring a physical access. I’m trying to open a door with Usher. This door has to be linked via Lenel's OnGuard open security platform, which needs to be installed on our server. The move after this is the more tricky part, which is configuring the security platform with Usher. After the integration of Usher I will be able to configure beacons to trigger the action of opening the door via Bluetooth. This way you don’t always have to take your smartphone out of your pockets which definitely comes in handy.

The key of the 2nd project are beacons. By placing beacons inside all of our buildings we will be able to track down anyone within our network via Usher. This way you know where to go to when you need someone.

The last project is finished, which was creating a demo with a more out of the box way to use Usher. Together with some colleagues I created an Usher Networking Book. The book is used to make networking events more efficient and give the attendees a better overall experience of the event.

The Usher Networking Book has an overview of all attending clients. It provides you information of each client, which automatically gives you better insight of who to reach out for or not. When viewing the clients page, you are able to communicate and arrange an appointment with one or more employees of this client. When meeting up feel free to scan their QR-codes via Usher. Later on, when viewing your Usher Networking Book, you’ll easily remember with whom you had a chat!

See video below

Conclusion

Right now there are a lot of people that fear hack attacks and fear security fails. With the uprise of technology, cybercrime & identity fraud are happening more and more often. What we need these days is a security that we can rely on and prevent these crimes from us.

In my opinion Usher definitely has what it takes to fill in this gap, not only within your enterprise but global activities in general. Have you heard of Usher or are you interested in it? Please feel free to contact me at gunther.meert@agiliz.be.

Gunther Meert

BI Consultant

Leading your journey towards actionable insights

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